The UT Administration has released IT and Electronics Policy with an aim to promote excellence and innovation in the domains of IT & electronics. Punjab Governor and UT Administrator Shivraj Patil on Saturday accorded approval to Information Technology & Electronics Policy 2013.
The policy aims to leverage IT & Electronics to further boost the socio-economic development in the Union Territory of Chandigarh by promoting various e-Governance initiatives, bridging the digital divide and promoting IT & electronics industry. The policy will facilitate creation and up-gradation of the IT infrastructure for interactive education at schools and promoting advanced virtual classroom courses. With this policy coming into existence, the UT Department of Information Technology will facilitate participation of Micro & Small Enterprises IT units in tender/RFP issued for procurement of IT goods/services.
Also, electronic technology transfer, IPR etc will be incentivised through friendly tax regime for industries who adopt technologies developed by Indian institutes/organisations/laboratories. Besides, the IT Department would work towards notifying Chandigarh as Brownfield Electronic Manufacturing Cluster.
A senior UT official said that with the release of the policy, the Administration has become one of the leaders amongst the States and UTs in the country to come up with a combined policy for IT & Electronics. The policy is expected to lay a strong foundation for a knowledge-based society in Chandigarh by empowering citizens at all levels in the society.
The official said that this well-rounded IT & Electronics Policy has many unique and national firsts in it. The policy envisions creation of an electronic/digital resource by the UT Department of Information Technology, which would enable the officials as well as the citizens to have an easy access to important information like rules, regulations, notifications etc. Besides making provisions to create a venture capital fund, the policy also includes incentives and provisions for IT & Electronics entrepreneurs at various levels.
The IT & Electronics Policy of Administration is in sync with the National Policies on IT, telecommunications, electronics, cyber security etc. Since IT is perpetually in a state of flux, while drafting the policy, special emphasis was laid on mapping technology trends, IT-adoption patterns in Chandigarh and feasibility of using upcoming cutting-edge applications of IT for e-Governance, added the official.
He said that the forward looking approach adopted by the Department of Information Technology has enabled to come up with policy that has a vision set to be realised by 2020. In order to implement the new IT&E Policy efficiently and effectively, the Department of Information Technology is envisioning to prepare a detailed Action Plan which would be followed by an implementation plan.
The policy is also expected to propel Chandigarh to attain the smart city status in the not-so distant future.